For those unfamiliar with your band, please give a brief one liner about your sound.
Just straight forward metal that makes you want to get up and move.
What was the writing process like for your album?
Musically it went really smoothly. I had a harder time with the lyrics because I wanted them to be more meaningful than things I had written in the past. I have a couple of songs that have multiple sets of lyrics because I had a hard time deciding on the theme of the song overall. In the end though, it all came together pretty nicely.
What do you think sets your band apart from the rest? What does Tralineate bring to the table that no one else does?
That it’s just me. Literally everything from the logo to the artwork to the music to the final product. I try to bring a lot of different subtle elements into each song. I have a lot of different tastes ranging from heavy rock to black metal so I try to incorporate all of those ideas into everything. Some songs are thrashy, some are a little darker, some are more symphonic based, etc.
What sort of things inspire you to create music?
Everything. Personal experiences mostly but the news helps too. Haha. Life is weird and there’s no shortage of strange or uncomfortable things to talk about.
How do you feel about the current state of the music industry, in particular streaming services, “illegal” downloads and such?
I like being able to get my music out to the world with the touch of a button but this is the first time I’ve released anything digitally and I do see the impact of people just downloading it illegally. It almost seems that some people don’t value the art of it or at least the time and effort that goes into it and so they don’t see that they’re doing anything wrong. Maybe they think they’re helping by sharing it and then they’ll buy stuff at the shows to bypass putting money into the record companies hands. I actually have an friend that told me how great he thought my music was but that he was going to wait until he could find a torrent or whatever to get it for free. That’s kinda messed up. Not much of a friend.
If you could share the stage with any other musician (dead or alive), who would it be?
Devin Townsend. That would be pretty fun.
Which albums are in your top 10 right now?
I haven’t bought anything super new in a while but these are my regulars.
Fleshgod Apocalypse – King
SepticFlesh – Titan
House of Thumbs – Crossing the Rubicon
Hadal Maw – Senium
Dimmu Borgir – Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Pantera – Far Beyond Driven
Meshuggah – Obzen
Strapping Young Lad – The New Black
Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony
Danzig II – Lucifuge
Fast forward 5 years from now, what’s Tralineate doing?
Living the dream. Haha. It may transform in the years to come but it will still be heavy and it will still be metal.
Craziest thing you’ve ever done together with the band?
Well since it’s just me I’d have to go back to past bands. And in those, my bandmates were and still are fairly reserved people. I’m the weird one. So most of my stories involve my best friend and those stories have to be kept in the vault so as not to incriminate anybody. Haha.
Thanks for your time, anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks to you as well. I hope to catch you again sometime. Stay metal!